Statistical Service Undertakes 7th Living Standards Survey

Dr Philomena Nyarko, Gov’t Statistician

The Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) says it is undertaking the Seventh Round of the Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS-7).

The survey, which commences this month and ends in October 2017, would study about 15,000 households in 1,000 Enumeration Areas (EAs) across the country.

Selected households would be visited by trained interviewers to solicit information on their consumption and expenditures.

The GLSS-7 would collect, among others, detailed information on demographic characteristics of the population; education, health, employment, migration, housing conditions, household incomes, expenditure, agriculture and data protection.

A press release issued by the Service appealed to community leaders – chiefs, queen mothers, assemblymen, youth groups and households that have been selected for the survey to provide the interviewers with the needed assistance in the discharge of their duties.

The specific objectives of the survey are to provide information on patterns of households’ consumption and expenditure at a lower level of disaggregation; provide the basis for the construction of a new basket for the next re-basing of the Consumer Price Index (CPI); provide information for up-dating the country’s National Accounts; provide indicators for assessing agriculture activities and provide indicators to monitor the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), among others.

The Ghana Living Standards Survey (GLSS) is a nationally representative household survey which provides reliable, disaggregated and internationally comparable welfare and living conditions statistics in Ghana.

Ghana has conducted six rounds of living standards surveys since 1987.

The second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth rounds were conducted in 1988, 1991/92, 1998/99, 2005/2006 and 2012/2013 respectively.

The estimates from each of these surveys have provided policy makers and other users with valuable information for planning, monitoring and evaluation of programmes.

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